Mobile E-Home: Solar-Powered Electric Motorhome Recharges on the Road

Electric vehicles are often limited by recharge options, a
design problem this Dethleffs camper tackles with
solar panels and German engineering.

Their E.Home concept vehicle has a maximum range of over 170
miles but can potentially run indefinitely (at least by day)
thanks to over 300 square feet of thin solar film covering most
the exterior. These panels to generate up to 3,000 watts of
electricity, powering up a sodium-nickel-chloride battery.

Of course, the less energy needed the better the range, so the
camper company has also added phase change materials to
store heat by day and release it at night. Infrared heating
panels in the floors, walls and furniture also provide targeted
supplement heating on demand.

Thinking forward, the camper includes various other
cutting-edge technologies, like driver assistance and vehicle
monitoring systems. Give it a few more years and these things
will presumably end up driverless, too — the ultimate in
automatic, go-anywhere mobile homes (with even more room to
relax without a driver’s seat!).